


drift

by waveridden



Category: Blaseball (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Hawaii Fridays (Blaseball Team)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:47:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27317233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waveridden/pseuds/waveridden
Summary: Sutton, Juice, and the question of what it means to vibe.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 22





	drift

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mantisqueer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mantisqueer/gifts).



> For Jason, who requested Juice helping Sutton adjust to the Fridays. ily Jason!!!!!

“So you’ve finished a season with us,” Juice says brightly. “How do you feel?”

Sutton thinks about it. The pause drags out a little longer than she’s comfortable with, but Juice doesn’t seem to notice. That’s one of the things about the Fridays: they’re comfortable with silence where Sutton always wants noise. Just another thing to get used to.

The two of them are walking along the beach together. It was Juice’s idea; she promised to show Sutton something incredible, something that’s really the essence of the Fridays. Sutton had jumped at the chance, mostly because she still doesn’t understand what exactly the essence of the Fridays is. She understands parts of it, sure, but she can’t live it. Not the way that the Fridays do, not even the way that Nagomi and MoCo seem to be adjusting.

“It’s different,” Sutton says at last. Juice must know that it’s a non-answer because she shoots Sutton a look. She sighs. “You guys are a lot… quieter.”

“What?” Juice laughs. “Haven’t you met the team?”

“You’re a different kind of loud than I’m used to.”

“How do you mean?”

“Baltimore was always so…” Sutton has to take a deep breath. “There was always something happening in the Crabitat. It felt like we were at the center of everything. People building something, or something happening in the city. Projects and change and momentum and we got to be in the midst of it all.”

“Do you miss it?”

“Most days.”

It feels like an admission of guilt, but Juice just nods like it makes perfect sense. Sutton tries to imagine her in a Crabs uniform, walking through the Crabitat. It’s almost a laughable thought. The Fridays are so very Friday that they can’t be transposed onto another team, especially not one like the Crabs. She wonders, sometimes, if it’s the same looking at her in a Fridays uniform.

They keep walking. Juice says, “You could always visit.”

Sutton kicks at the sand. “I don’t know that I want to.”

“Because you’re a full Friday now?”

Sutton does her best to hide her grimace, but she must not do a good enough job, because Juice slants a glance over. She sighs. “You’ve all been so great, it’s not anything to do with the team. I just feel like I don’t… get it.”

“Get what?”

“Your whole-” she waves a hand at Juice. “The vibes, and the feelings, and the… the Fridays of it all. I always got the Crabs, they were so loud and overwhelming in the best kind of ways, and it feels like there’s just nothing.”

“Sutton,” Juice laughs. She stops walking and turns to Sutton, holding out her hands. Sutton mirrors the motion automatically, and Juice takes her hands. “Close your eyes for a minute.”

Sutton closes her eyes and breathes in. Juice says, “What do you notice?”

She opens her mouth to answer right away, but she forces herself to close it. It feels a little like she’s floating through the air, and she lets herself spread out, still holding on to Juice’s hands as an anchor.

“The ocean,” she says at last. Her voice sounds breathy and distant.

“What about it?”

“It smells…” she breathes deep. “Like the ocean. Clean. And it’s loud.”

“What else?”

“Birds. And there’s…” There’s a lot, she realizes. Someone’s cooking something up the beach. She can smell Juice, sweet and just a little alcoholic. She can hear someone laughing. Someone surfing. There’s motion everywhere: a breeze through the trees, the steady way Juice is rubbing the backs of Sutton’s hands. “Wow.”

She opens her eyes. Juice grins. “Get it?”

“Yeah,” Sutton says, a little winded. It’s overwhelming in an entirely different way from the Crabitat. She could get lost in the details forever. There’s something incredible about it, about the sound in all the stillness. “That’s vibes?”

Juice laughs. “That’s a start. We can work on it.”

“Was that what you wanted to show me?”

“I don’t know yet,” Juice answers. She smiles slyly at Sutton, squeezing her hands once before letting go. “Vibes aren’t just one thing, you know. We might find something better.”

“Then let’s keep going,” Sutton answers. Juice starts back down the beach. When Sutton follows her, she’s grinning.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m on Tumblr/Twitter @waveridden!


End file.
